“A young boxer prepares for his final day at the gym that raised him. As he steps into the ring one last time, he’s forced to confront what it means to move forward and what he’s leaving behind.”

Join us for a screening of Wes to Delphi and a conversation with filmmaker A.J. Riggins exploring why combat sports have become one of cinema’s most enduring storytelling frameworks. From boxing and wrestling to MMA, these physical disciplines offer filmmakers a powerful lens for examining identity, purpose, belonging, mentorship, loss, and transformation.

Riggins will share insights from his creative practice on how physical conflict can be translated into emotional and psychological storytelling, and how disciplined bodies in motion can reveal deeper narratives of vulnerability and resilience.

A.J. Riggins is an award-winning filmmaker and producer from North Carolina whose work examines the complexity of family dynamics in the American South. He creates narrative and documentary projects that explore the human experience through a distinctly Southern lens, with short films and branded content that have screened at film festivals and received support from arts organizations across the region.

His documentary Beautiful Coffee received the 2022 PRWeek Corporate Branded Film of the Year award. His narrative collection, The World of Toine, explores Southern family life and serves as the foundation for his debut feature screenplay, Look at Toine. In 2025, he pitched Look at Toine at the New Orleans Film Festival’s South Pitch program, where it received the Audience Award.

A.J. is a 2024 fellow of Antigravity Academy’s Screenwriters Camp and Incubator and holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking.

The evening will open and close with a networking opportunity and include a Q&A with Riggins and members of the cast and crew.